Welcome to Summer
by HannahMichelle
Summary: A lot of people just assumed that going to find Ray Brower was our only adventure. Wrong. We had tons of fun that summer.
1. Dead Man's Rock

The summer of 1959 started out like any other. School ended, and we had three months of freedom in front of us. No teachers, no parents, no bullies, no homework. Just me and my boys.

--

"Come on, Mary! Don't be scared!" my brother Gordie shouted.

"I can't do it!" I yelled back, looking down at them in the water. At the time, it felt like I was 50 feet in the air, although in reality it must have only been about 15 feet.

"If you don't jump I'm gonna come up there and push you!" Teddy warned.

"No guys – I can't!" I yelled again. I was up on Dead Man's Rock, which overlooked the only lake in town for miles. It was a major hot-spot for kids in the summer.

"Come on, Mary. We'll make sure nothing happens!" Chris yelled. I let out a small whimper, closed my eyes, held my breath, plugged my nose, and jumped in.

I landed in the water with a splash and quickly made my way back to the surface. All the boys swam up to me and circled around.

"So...?" Vern asked. I grinned at them.

"That was fun!"

--

My brother Gordie was born 3 minutes before me. We were twins, but looked and acted nothing alike. Complete opposites. If I liked Elvis Presley, he liked Buddy Holly. If I wanted to watch King Creole, he wanted to watch Wizard of Oz. He liked to write, I liked to go outside and explore. Our brother Denny used to joke that I was the brother and Gordie was the sister. Of course, Gordie didn't like that joke.

Just a month ago, our older brother Dennis died in a Jeep accident. Gordie and I sprung back quickly, mostly just becoming numb to the whole thing, but our parents hardly talked, and sometimes Mom wouldn't even get out of bed for days.

--

We walked back to mine and Gordie's house just before it got dark.

"Are your parents home?" Teddy asked. Gordie shook his head.

"Mom's at Grandma's house, and Dad's at work," I answered.

"Good," Teddy said. "That means I can cuss. BITCH FU-" Teddy started, yelling the last part as loud as he could.

"TEDDY, grow up," Chris said, not amused.

"Teddy, grow up.." he mimicked in a high pitched voice. We all sat at the table, thinking of something to do.

"Hey..hey you guys," I said. We all leaned in as far as we could. "I know what we can do. You guys remember that old house on Vicksburg? The one that that old lady got killed in?"

"Yeah...yeah...Jimmy Powers went in there last summer. He said he saw 5 ghosts in one spot," Teddy said, getting excited. Everyone leaned in closer.

"Yeah. I say we go in there," I said, raising my eyebrows a little. Vern leaned back in his chair.

"I don't know...What if I die of fright or something?" he whined. We all looked at him.

"Vern, that's stupid. You can't die of fright," Teddy argued.

"Come on, Vern-O. Scared of a little ghost? What's it gonna do?" Chris asked.

"I don't know..it might...scream, or something. Billy told me he saw a ghost once, and it haunted him in his dreams for 3 years!"

"Do you really believe him?" I asked, laughing a little. Vern was too gullible.

"Yeah, come on Vern. Nothing will happen!" Chris said, patting Vern's shoulder.

"Well, who's in?" I asked.

"I am," Chris said.

"Shit yeah!" Teddy answered, then got up to look in the fridge.

"I guess.." Gordie said with a shrug.

"I don't wanna go...but I guess I'm in," Vern said with a pout. We heard my dad pull up in the driveway, home now.

"Okay you guys, we'll meet in front of the house at midnight. Don't let anyone know where you're going," Chris ordered.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it's really short. The next will be longer. Don't forget to review!!


	2. Haunted House

I lay awake in my bed, waiting for midnight to roll around. My heart pounded silently in my chest as I thought about what we were doing. I sighed and turned on my side, looking at the clock.

11:37. I decided to get up and get ready.

I grabbed a flashlight, changed into some jeans and a sweatshirt, and tip-toed to Gordie's room.

"Gordie," I whispered, opening the door and walking in. "Gordie? You awake?" I walked up to his bed, and leaned over him. "Goooorrdie," I whispered, shaking him a little. He moaned and tried to turn away from me. "Gordie. Come on. Haunted house..."

"Yeah, yeah..I'm comin'. Gimme a minute."

--

We walked in silence to the house on Vicksburg, which was a half mile from where we lived. When we arrived, Chris and Teddy were already there sitting on the curb.

"Hey guys, you ready?" Chris asked. Everyone had a flashlight, and Teddy had a canteen.

"What are we gonna drink if we get thirsty?" he said like I was dumb when I asked about it. Gordie and I joined them in sitting as we waited for Vern.

"God, where is this kid?" Teddy asked himself. Chris looked at his watch, and pointed out that 10 minutes had passed. Finally I saw him.

"There he is," I sing-songed and pointed. Vern was running towards us, his shoulders hunched forward, whimpering with every step. We all couldn't help but laugh, especially when we saw the baseball bat clenched in his fists.

"Good thinkin', Vern. When the ghost attacks you, you can swing a bat right through him!" Gordie joked. Vern looked upset.

"Oh yeah.." he said lowly, and we approached the old house.

"Wow," Chris said when we were standing in front of the door. "It's big." The house was three stories, old and wooden. All the windows were boarded up.

"Yeah, it is. Try the door," I said, nudging him with my elbow.

"I think Teddy should..." he said. We all looked at Teddy.

"Pussies," he said, and tried to open the door. "Locked."

"Come on, the back door.." Chris said, and walked around the house. We all followed. He tried it this time. "Locked.." Suddenly I saw our way in.

"Ooh, come on guys.." I said, and lead them to the cellar door. I opened it and stared down at the old cement stairs.

"No. No way. I'm not goin' down there.." Vern said, shaking his head.

"Come on, Vern. This is the only way in," I said.

"No...it's...dark. I'm ascared, guys. I'm not doing it."

"Pussy," Teddy said.

"_Miiiaaaoow_," I teased. Vern just shook his head.

"Come on, Vern. We've all got flashlights...and you've got a bat," Chris assured. Finally we convinced Vern to come in.

I lead the way as we descended the stairs. I'll admit, too, that I was pretty scared. Who wouldn't be?

We got to the bottom and were standing in the cold cellar. No one knew what to do.

"BOO!" Teddy shrieked, and shoved me a little. I screamed and turned around, slapping him in the face as hard as I could. "Ow.." Teddy said, rubbing his cheek.

"Don't fuckin' do that, Duchamp!!" I said through gritted teeth. He just grinned, still holding the spot where I had hit him.

"Come on, you guys..There's the door," Chris said, and we followed him up more stairs and to a door that was unlocked. We walked into the kitchen. I tried to turn on the light, but the power had been shut off the old house.

"Guys, I don't wanna go any further. Please guys, I'm too young to die..." Vern was saying, on the verge of tears.

"Shut up, Vern," Gordie said. Chris now became the leader in this adventure, and he led us through the house. We were now standing in the still-furnished living room, looking at all the old pictures on the wall.

"Kinda spooky, ain't it?" I asked, sitting on an old sofa. No one said anything back, but they all joined me on the couch.

_CRASH!_

I jumped on Teddy's lap, who was next to me, and everyone squished together.

"What the hell was that?!" I asked. No one answered, but it came again.

_BAM!_

"Oh my God, we're gonna die. We're gonna die. We're gonna die..." Vern kept repeating.

"Wanna go check it out?" Chris asked. Teddy shoved me off him.

"Let's go," he said, and they stood up. Gordie, Vern, and I stayed put.

"If anything happens to you guys, scream as loud as you can, and Gordie and Mary will come get you!" Vern called after them, as they ran upstairs. I wanted to go, but at the same time, I didn't.

Five minutes past.

"What do you think they're doing?" I asked Gordie.

"I dunno...I haven't heard anything yet..."

He spoke too soon.

_BANG!_

Vern jumped, whimpering.

"Guys let's just leave, come on. We'll go back to my place. I don't wanna die..."

"Vern, knock it off. You're not gonna die."

"I promise I'll never be annoying again..I'll never look for my pennies again...I'll-"

"Vern, shut it," I said, listening. I thought I heard voices upstairs. "Guys, I'm going up. Who's with me?"

"Nah, I'll stay here with Vern," Gordie said. I nodded and slowly walked up the creaky stairs. With every step, I could here Chris and Teddy talking louder.

"Guys," I said once I was behind them. They both jumped and turned around quickly, gasping. I laughed. "Find out what's making the noise?" I asked.

"No. We think it's in the attic," Chris said. We all looked up, where we could hear something walking.

"Come on," Teddy said and ran down the hall. We followed, and stopped at a door. We guessed it lead to the attic. "Stand back, men!" Teddy exclaimed, and kicked the door open. He was holding his flashlight like a gun. I cleared my throat, and tapped Teddy on the shoulder. He looked at me and smiled. "And women."

"Alright guys, let's go," Chris said, and we slowly walked up the stairs. These ones looked like they'd snap and break any minute.

We got to the top, and were standing inside the attic. It was old and wooden, dust everywhere. There were trunks and trunks full of old stuff, and a part of me really wanted to dig through them. I was about to open one when we heard the bang. We all jumped and turned our flashlights to our left, where the noise had come from.

"Hello?" Chris asked hesitantly. We saw a dark shadowy figure rise from behind a trunk.

"Oh...my...god..." Teddy sad slowly. When the form turned into the shape of a person, we all screamed and flew down the stairs. We didn't stop running until we were in the living room where we had left Vern and Gordie.

"Come on guys, run!" I screamed to them as we fled out the door. We didn't stop running until we were standing in front of Vern's house.

"What? What is it? What'd you guys see?" Gordie asked as we all panted.

"The ghost, man. We saw her ghost!" Teddy answered.

"Yeah, it was HUGE! Bigger than the old lady herself was!" I added.

"Yeah man, I'm not going back there," Chris said. Then we noticed Vern wasn't with us. We all cracked up when we saw him looking at us through his bedroom window.

"Whatta baby," Teddy said, and we all went to our separate homes.

A/N: Review, please!


	3. Rocky's Ice Cream Shop

"Bye Mom, bye Dad, bye Gordie!" I called, running out the door. It was a warm summer morning, barely 9:00. I grabbed my bike which was thrown in the yard and joined my three best girl friends at the end of the street.

"So, where we going?" Candy asked, blowing a bubble with her gum. She was the leader of our gang and my best friend.

"Blue Point Diner?" Selma asked.

"No, stupid. It's not even open yet," Christi said, hitting Selma on the arm.

"Let's ride across the bridge and hang out by the river," I suggested.

"Mkay," Candy said with a shrug, and we all peddled in that direction.

As we passed Teddy's house, I saw him sitting outside on the porch with his shirt off, panting like a dog. I stopped, making the other girls stop, too.

"Hey Teddy, whattya doing?" I asked. He pointed to the lawn mower, still gasping for air. I laughed and said bye, and we rode off. A little ways down, Candy opened her mouth.

"You still talk to him?" she asked.

"He's a cool guy," I shrugged.

"His dad's crazy," Christi said. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah, but so what? Teddy's not," I said then thought that over. Maybe he was a little crazy...

"Whatever. Your funeral," Candy said and went ahead. I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I ignored it and kept riding.

--

We rode past the bridge and parked our bikes off the side of the road, and walked down a steep dirt hill to the medium-sized creek that ran through Castle Rock. We all sat on a sandy beachy area with our feet in the water.

"Christi, truth or dare?" I asked.

"Dare," she picked. I was too hot and tired to think of a real dare, so I said something simple.

"Dare you to get in the water all the way." She looked at my like I was stupid and stood up. "Naked," I added at the last second.

"I'm not going in _naked_. It's the middle of the day, everyone will see me!"

"No one's here but us," I said.

"Yeah, but with _my_ luck, just as I get my clothes off everybody will be passing on that bridge," she said.

"Fine, in your underwear," I said. She sighed and said fine, then stripped down. She got in the water until it was up to her chin, then turned around and came back.

"Candy, truth or dare?" she asked when she was settled again.

"Truth."

"Who do you like?" Christi asked. It was the most famous 'truth or dare' question in history.

"Nobody," she said and shook her head. She gave me a warning look, which I understood. Last week, she slipped to me that she liked Chris, and was jealous that I was always hanging out with him.

Christi was about to say something again when we heard voices coming up from the bridge. We all stood up and strained to see who it was, but I recognized the voices.

"Guys, that's Eyeball Chambers and Charlie Hogan," I whispered.

"Oh great. Come on, let's leave.." Selma said. We've all heard stories about the Cobras, and no one wanted to find out if they really were as bad as we've been told.

"No, wait. Let's see what they do," Candy said. We all stopped and waited, not realizing that they were walking down the hill to where we were.

"Aw, Charlie..It's just a buncha kids," Eyeball said when they reached us.

"What were you expecting?" I asked.

"Real girls," Charlie said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"We _are_ real girls," Christi said, puffing out her chest and putting her hands on her hips. Eyeball looked like he was trying not to laugh, and Charlie looked disgusted. I turned my head to laugh, while sneaking a glance at Eyeball's face. He was kind of cute...

"Come on, girls. Let's leave," Candy said, hitting Christi on the shoulder to get her to stop. We all walked away without a scratch on us, proving in our minds that the Cobras weren't all they were cracked up to be.

--

We rode our bikes around town for the rest of the afternoon, stopping around 4 to get ice cream at Rocky's Ice Cream Shop. It was a pretty cool hang out.

"Hey Mary, there's your evil twin," Selma said when we walked in. I looked and saw Gordie sitting with Chris and Vern. We walked up and joined them sitting in a booth.

"Hey guys, what's happening?" I asked. They looked almost as bored as we were.

"Nothing. We're all gonna tent out in Vern's field tonight. Wanna come?" Chris answered.

"All of us?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Vern, can we fit?" I asked. He looked a little worried.

"Yeah..but I don't know if my mom will let me have girls over.."

"I always go with you guys," I said.

"But you're different. You don't count."

"I don't count as a girl?" I asked, pretending to be offended.

"No – you do. But you're Gordie's sister. My mom knows that. You're his twin. She knows you," he said, now in a panic. Chris and Gordie were trying not to laugh at Vern's freaking out.

"Vern, just don't tell her they're over," Chris said. Vern's face lit up.

"Yeah! What a great idea!" he beamed, amazed at such a simple suggestion.

We all planned on meeting in Vern's back field at 6, while it was still light out.

* * *

A/N: Review, please! OH and by the way, I was bored so gave some of my OCs from my stories pictures. Mary and Candy included. On my profile thing.

:)


	4. Blood Brothers

Six PM rolled around quick, and Gordie and I left on our bikes to Vern's house. He lived a good three miles away, so we had plenty of time to catch up on our way. It had been a long time since we talked about Denny.

"I think about him still," I told Gordie as we rode side by side in the middle of the street, letting cars come in between us every once in awhile.

"Yeah. Me too. Especially at dinner time..I always picture him eating with us, and what conversations we'd have," he replied. Gordie and I could talk openly about this, but when I tried to talk about Denny with anyone else, I usually teared up to the point where I couldn't talk. "Ya know, Chris had a dream about him last night?"

"Really? What happened?" I asked, interested.

"He said he dreamed that that was Denny's ghost in the house. And that he followed us to the lake, and tried to drown Vern. Ace and Eyeball were with him, cheering him on..." he told it like you would tell a story.

"That's really weird...What do you think _was_ in the house?" I asked.

"It was a ghost, what else?"

"I think it might have been a shadow...Or some wino. I don't think it was a ghost.."

"Why not?" he asked, almost offended sounding.

"Why would a ghost hide in the attic?"

"Good point," Gordie thought. We each took opposite sides of the road, letting a car separate us temporarily. When we joined back together, he didn't say anything. Neither did I. I figured we were both thinking about our dead brother; I know I was.

--

"Jesus, Vern, why is this tent so big?" Gordie asked as we pulled up. Everyone was there, both gangs.

"I found it in the storage closet..my dad uses it for hunting. I figured it could fit all of us, and if my mom asks why, I could say that it's because it's so hot outside, and we don't want to sleep close," Vern gushed, proud of himself to think up such a clever excuse. If his mom knew that there were four girls in the tent with him, poor Vern would never hear the end of it, and probably wouldn't be able to sit for a week. Plus he'd get the sex talk, which all our parents seemed to avoid.

--

The tent _was_ big; big enough to fit the Lochness Monster comfortably. Okay, that's exaggerating..but not by much. We all climbed in and rolled out our blankets. Each gang took a half of the tent; girls on one side, boys on the other. Inside the tent already, Vern had stocked it with marshmallows, uncooked hot dogs, 8 bottles of Coke, two flashlights, a book of scary stories, some matches, and a pack of cigarettes.

Vern's field was not that big, but big enough so we could be a safe distance from the house, avoiding Cobras and parents all together. We had a situation once when Billy had brought his hood buddies over for some beer, and they partied in the field for hours. We lay awake in the tent all night, scared to death of what they would do if they discovered our little hideaway.

--

"Hmm...James Dean, or Elvis Presley?" Selma asked me as we sat in a circle outside, waiting for the sun to finish setting.

When I say 'we', I really mean just the girls. The boys were playing their own version of charades, which is what we always do when we camp out. I'll admit it was pretty fun, but I wouldn't play in front of the girls. I have a rep with them to keep.

"Elvis, no doubt," I answered. Presley was my man, and everyone in Castle Rock knew that. "Buddy Holly, or Johnny Cash?" I asked Christi. She made a disgusted face, and answered Buddy. I didn't know what her problem was...I thought Johnny was pretty cute...

"Of course _you_ do," Candy said after I thought that out loud. I didn't say anything after that. Then a wicked grin spread across her face. "Teddy Duchamp, or Chris Chambers?" she whispered, staring me in the eye.

"I'm not answering that, they're my brothers" I giggled. Even if I had wanted to, I couldn't. If I wanted to say Teddy, I'd get made fun of forever. But on the other hand, if I had said Chris, Candy wouldn't talk to me for at least a week. Sometimes it was hard being her best friend.

"Hey you guys, I'm getting hungry. Wanna eat?" Vern asked. Candy looked disappointed that she didn't get a chance to force me to answer, but she got up, too and joined the guys in the tent, where we all dug out the provisions. We sat in the dark outside, our eyes adjusting to the night.

"Why do we have to eat these raw? Can't we build a fire?" Candy complained. Everyone else dug in to the hot dogs as if we hadn't eaten in years.

"My mom won't let us after we caught the grass on fire," Vern said sadly. I laughed, remembering the incident.

Surprisingly, Candy didn't argue much more, but also ate hungrily. Afterwards, we opened the bag of marshmallows and swallowed them fiercely. Teddy and I got into a game of trying to throw one into each other's mouths, and when I ran out of my handful, I elbowed Chris in the arm, asking him to hand me the bag. He winced in pain and grabbed his arm, but grabbed for the treats.

"What's wrong?" I asked, touching his arm gently.

"Richie socked me one this morning," he answered, rubbing his bruise.

"I hate big brothers," Vern said. Gordie and I exchanged a look that meant everything, but didn't say a word.

"Idiot!" Teddy cried out and punched Vern in the arm. He must've seen our look.

--

We fooled around for another half hour when Chris came up with an idea.

"Hey guys, let's become blood brothers..." he suggested. We all looked at him with confused looks.

"What's that?" Gordie asked.

"Well...you see, you like, prick your finger so it bleeds, and rub it against someone's else's finger...so your blood mixes, and your related then." he explained. Candy made a sort of grunting noise.

"You know how dangerous that it? I'm not doing it," she said. "What if one of you has a disease I don't know about?"

"I had the flu once!" Vern piped in. I couldn't help but laugh.

"I wouldn't want you to be my sister anyway.." Teddy said under his breath. I smiled at him, showing I heard, and secretly agreed. Candy was my best girl friend, but even I knew she was a pain.

"How 'bout everyone else?" Chris asked. Teddy, Gordie, Vern, and I all agreed. Which didn't surprise me that no one else did.

"What can we use?" Teddy asked, looking around. I grabbed one of the empty Coke bottles and handed it to Chris, who walked away, smashed it on a rock, and brought a piece back. We promised Vern we'd clean the rest of the glass up in the morning.

"That's SO unsanitary..." Selma said and looked away.

We all passed the glass around, slicing our index fingers just enough for them to bleed. Once we were all cut, we pressed our fingers together, (obviously Gordie and I skipped each other), officially becoming "related".

The guys and Candy all lit up a cigarette (no one else smoked), and Vern read us some stories from the book that he brought out. No one else thought they were scary except him, but they were entertaining.

Eventually we just let Gordie tell us one of his infamous Le Dio stories.

* * *

A/N: Finally an update! It's kind of a long one, too...

Also, I started school. So that sucks. That also means homework, which leaves even less time to update.

Review, please!


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